Baytown shooting: Parents facing gun charges related to 14-year-old son's murder case

BAYTOWN, Texas - The parents of a 14-year-old Baytown murder suspect have been charged for allegedly making a firearm accessible to the teen.

The new charges

What we know:

According to court documents, Cassie Coney and Kenneth Coney are accused of making a firearm accessible to a child, a misdemeanor charge.

Court documents allege that they left a revolver in a blue travel bag without a lock in their bedroom. The teen allegedly used that gun to shoot and kill a 14-year-old girl, Anaya Zachary. 

The charges are filed as misdemeanors. Billy Morian, a Houston defense attorney who is not directly related to the case but provided insight, says, they're likely Class A misdemeanors due to the nature of the circumstances.

"Since there was serious bodily injury in this case, it has been enhanced from a Class C misdemeanor to a Class A, which is punishable by a year in jail," said Morian. 

Anaya's family says they wish for more serious charges to be brought against the parents.

"I'm not comfortable with that, somebody gotta take charge for this," said her father, Joseph Zachary. 

Anaya's cousin, Janet Zachery, says she thinks the parents were negligent in multiple ways by not seeing the warning signs sooner. 

"This could have been dealt with a whole other way. Anaya could still be here if someone was on his side, preferably the parents," she said. "When you don't take that second to sit down and find out what's going on with your child, and they go out and do something like this, you should be held responsible."

14-year-old girl shot to death at Baytown apartment complex

Police responded to a shooting call at an apartment complex playground in the 4600 block of Village Lane at about 4 p.m. March 21.

According to court documents, the suspect and a 14-year-old girl – identified by family as Anaya Zachary – had been involved in an argument on the school bus. During the argument, the suspect allegedly threatened to kill the girl.

When the suspect got home, he allegedly went to his parents’ bedroom, where he had found the gun three weeks prior, and took it to the apartment complex on Village Lane, court documents state. He allegedly then used that gun to shoot and kill Anaya.

After an interview with police, he was charged with murder.

Misdemeanor charge in Texas, could be a felony elsewhere 

Dig deeper:

In a historic case out of Michigan, the parents of a convicted mass shooter were sentenced to 10 years in prison after the court found they missed opportunities that could have prevented their teenage son from possessing a gun and killing four students.

The two were charged with involuntary manslaughter. 

In Texas, the penal code defines manslaughter as "a person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual" and criminally negligent homicide as "A person commits an offense if he causes the death of an individual by criminal negligence." Both charges are felonies of different degrees. 

In the Baytown case, court documents do accuse the parents of "criminal negligence" for leaving the firearm accessible, but Morian says it's unlikely for them to face more serious charges. 

"I've never seen anything like that here in Texas, maybe in some other states," he said. "Here in the state of Texas, I don't think the parents will be subject to any more liability than the Class A misdemeanor."

Anaya's family expressed that they'll be pushing for more serious charges to be brought on the parents.

"That law's got to change or something," said Joseph. "A life was taken," added Janet.

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